1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of hardware components of furniture and cupboards, and more particularly to a front connecting device of a concealed slide applied to drawers of cupboards, and whose simplified structural design not just lowers the cost only, but also takes adjustments to the use into consideration.
2. Description of the Related Art
To save efforts and facilitate users to pull out a drawer of furniture such as filing cabinets, cupboards and tables, a pair of slides are generally installed between the drawer and the furniture for carrying the load of the drawer and sliding the drawer, and the slides are mainly divided into side-mounted and undermount slides, and the side-mounted slide is installed on a side of the drawer to connect the furniture, and the undermount slide (also known as concealed slide) is installed at the bottom of the drawer to connect the furniture to form a concealed mode, and thus such slide is called a concealed slide.
In general, the weight of a drawer presses at the concealed slide directly during use, so that the force exerting direction of the undermount slide is different from that of the side-mount slide, so that the structure of the concealed slide of the undermount slide is naturally different from that of the side-mounted slide. However, the gap between the drawer and the furniture cannot be adjusted due to the structural design of the side-mounted slide. On the other hand, the installation position and method of the concealed slide are different, so that when the vertical gap or horizontal gap between the drawer and the furniture varies, a front connecting device may be used for making adjustments.
Since there is always a tolerance between the drawer and the furniture to facilitate the installation, a bigger gap may be resulted in the process of manually installing, assembling, or producing the connecting device and the concealed slide due to different factors, or the gap may even exist between the concealed slide and the bottom of the drawer, not only giving an ugly look, but also may deviate the applied force since a panel is not situated at the center position. As a result, the front of the panel of the drawer may be tilted to a side, or the drawer may even not be opened easily. Now, the aforementioned front connecting device can be used for adjusting the relative positions of the concealed slide, the drawer and the furniture. Conventional front connecting devices are disclosed in R.O.C. Pat. No. M448201 entitled “Stepless drawer panel adjusting device”, R.O.C. Pat. No. I404868 entitled “Auxiliary positioning device for slide assembly”, U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,139 “Device for fixing a driver extension mechanism”, U.S. Pat. No. 7,533,946 “Closing device for drawer”, U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,514 entitled “Shock absorbing locking disconnect latch for ball bearing slides”, U.S. Pat. Publication No. 20050231083 entitled “Undermount drawer slide”, PCT Pat. Publication No. WO 2004/110213 entitled “Front locking device for releasably engaging a drawer to a drawer slide”, Austrian Pat. No. 510706A4 entitled “KUPPLUNGSVORRICHTUNG FÜR SCHUBLADEN”, and PRC Pat. No. 101548821 entitled “Slide adjusting device for drawers”, and most of these front connecting devices have the drawbacks of complicated structure, difficult manufacture, and high manufacturing cost. In addition, the complicate structure of the front connecting device makes the maintenance and replacement difficult. Obviously, the conventional front connecting devices require improvements.